Lineup administrator influences on eyewitness identification and eyewitness confidence

• We examined eyewitness identification in a staged-crime experiment.
• Lineup administrator interventions increased both correct and false identifications.
• Average confidence for correct identifications was unaffected by administrator interventions.
• Average confidence for false identifications decreased due to administrator interventions.

Lineup administrators were trained to respond to witnesses in such a way as to redirect them from making non-identifications or foil identification responses toward making identifications of the suspect. Compared to a no-influence control condition, suspect identification rates in the influence condition increased substantially and proportionally for guilty and innocent suspects. Administrators steered witnesses more specifically toward the suspect when the suspect was guilty than when the suspect was innocent. Post-identification confidence for correct identifications of the guilty suspect did not differ significantly across the influence and no-influence groups. However, post-identification confidence for false identifications of the innocent suspect was significantly lower for the influence group than for the no-influence group because witnesses who were influenced to make false identifications tended to be those who were less confident prior to the lineup, and also because those witnesses became less confident from pre- to post-identification.

Administrator influence produced an increase in correct identifications rates (with little effect on confidence) and increased false identification rates (with a decrease in confidence).Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide